OK -- I read it and he basically says what I said -- in the real world we can't
prove that something doesn't exist, but proving that it's highly unlikely that
it exists is good enough.
In other words -- formal logic deals in absolutes; science deals in
probabilities.
On Nov 13, 2011, at 1:36 PM, Brandon, Paul K wrote:
> Haven't read the article yet, but noting that it comes from a philosophy
> department....
>
> 'Proof' is more a mathematical/logical construct than an empirical one.
> Certainly, mathematically you can prove that a negative statement is true
> ("one plus one equals three in Euclidean mathematics).
> However, to demonstrate empirically that a negative statement is true, one
> would either have to sample the entire population of events, or else
> demonstrate that one had a complete set of natural laws covering the event
> plus a perfectly representative sample.
> So, while one can demonstrate that an event is highly unlikely, I would be
> skeptical about a claim to prove that the event could not exist.
>
> Now to read the article.....
>
>
> On Nov 13, 2011, at 12:55 PM, Jeffry Ricker, PhD wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I suspect that many of us, when we teach students to 'think critically',
> state that "one can't prove a negative." Here's a brief article that provides
> a counter-argument to this claim, at a level that students (and I) can
> understand:
>
> Hales, S. (2005). You Can Prove a Negative. Think, 10, 109-12. Retrieved from
> http://departments.bloomu.edu/philosophy/pages/content/hales/articles/proveanegative.html
>
> Here are some excerpts:
>
> "Some people seem to think that you can’t prove a specific sort of negative
> claim, namely that a thing does not exist. So it is impossible to prove that
> Santa Claus, unicorns, the Loch Ness Monster, God, pink elephants, WMD in
> Iraq, and Bigfoot don’t exist. Of course, this rather depends on what one has
> in mind by ‘prove.’...
>
> "Maybe people mean that no inductive argument will conclusively, indubitably
> prove a negative proposition beyond all
> shadow of a doubt. For example, suppose someone argues that we’ve scoured the
> world for Bigfoot, found no credible
> evidence of Bigfoot’s existence, and therefore there is no Bigfoot. A classic
> inductive argument. A Sasquatch defender can always rejoin that Bigfoot is
> reclusive, and might just be hiding in that next stand of trees. You can’t
> prove he’s not!...
>
> "The very nature of an inductive argument is to make a conclusion probable,
> but not certain, given the truth of the
> premises.... Despite its fallibility, induction is vital in every aspect of
> our lives, from the mundane to the most
> sophisticated science. Without induction we know basically nothing about the
> world apart from our own immediate perceptions.... You can prove a negative —
> at least as much as you can prove anything at all."
>
> Best,
> Jeff
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D.
> SCC: Professor of Psychology
> MCCCD: General Studies Faculty Representative
> PSY 101 Website: http://sccpsy101.wordpress.com/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Fax: (480) 423-6298
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